Contents

Conference Presentations 2010

IASSIST 2010-Social Data and Social Networking: Connecting Social Science Communities across the Globe, Ithaca, NY

Host Institution: Cornell Institute for Social and Economic Research (CISER) and Cornell University Library (CUL)

E1: Engaging New Users (Thu, 2010-06-03)Chair:Lynda Kellam, University of North Carolina at Greensboro

Developing an Internet based Data Service at SSJDA in Japa

Keiichi Sato (University of Tokyo , Institute of Social Science)

[abstract]

The Social Science Japan Data Archive (SSJDA) collects, maintains, and provides access to the academic community, a vast archive of social science data (quantitative data obtained from social surveys) for secondary analyses. As a unit within the Center for Social Research and Data Archives, Institute of Social Science, University of Tokyo, SSJDA aims to promote empirical research on Japan in the social sciences, and has been disseminating survey data since April, 1998. The total number of available datasets is about 1,200 in the end of 2008. SSJDA plays the role of a major data provider for those who seek to analyze the Japanese society using micro data. This presentation discusses the recent efforts in developing the internet based system at SSJDA. SSJDA has an on-line searching system powered by full-text search engine. It has also developed an on-line data provision system which started to operate from April 2009. The English version of the same system will be made public early in 2010. In addition, SSJDA has just started to consider the adoption of DDI seriously.

E2: Connecting the IASSIST Community Across the Web: IASSIST Publications Committee and e-Community Infrastructure Action Group Discussion with Members (Thu, 2010-06-03)Moderator: Robin Rice, University of Edinburgh

Connecting the IASSIST Community Across the Web: IASSIST Publications Committee and e-Community Infrastructure Action Group Discussion with Members

Walter Piovesan (University of Vancouver)

Bo Wandschneider (University of Guelph)

Harrison Dekker (University of California Berkeley)

Carol Perry (University of Guelph)

Amy West (University of Minnesota)

Jennifer Darragh (Johns Hopkins University )

[abstract]

The IASSIST website was created by a lone volunteer in 1999 and through a
massive volunteer effort by an expanded Pubs committee was formed into
the present site in 2002. Calls for modernization were heard in the
conference hallways at least two years ago, and a migration to an open
source web content management system was envisaged. Following some ups
and downs and many skype conference calls during 2009/10, a new ‘swat
team’ emerged to build a new website to allow greater participation and
interaction by members, along with a brand new look and feel. Meanwhile,
the e-Community Infrastructure Action Group was formed in 2009, charged
with proposing an umbrella of infrastructure for the IASSIST
e-Community. IASSIST has long used virtual means to build its community.
Mail lists, websites, blogs, online databases, virtual workspaces, and
social networking are now a day-to-day part of the operation of the
association. Clearly, new technologies afford us the possibility for
synergy among our multifarious online presences in a way that can enrich
our community and ease its administration. In the tradition of the
Outreach and Strategy committees: we would like to share our work over
the last year and open the floor for discussion.

In the United States and elsewhere, the need for ethics review was addressed in response to egregious ethical violations in medical and biological research. Research review in the social and behavioral sciences has slowly evolved from this medical background, but several contentious issues remain in the effort to best address the needs and risks of social science data collection, analysis, and archival. This panel will be structured to bring together various stakeholders in the ongoing worldwide discussion of ethics review in the social sciences to discuss current needs and future directions in the United States and elsewhere. This session will be structured as a panel discussion and not as a series of presentations. Each panelist will be given a chance at the beginning to describe his or her viewpoints regarding the current state of regulation, data access and confidentiality in social science research. However, a moderated discussion centered around issues of data accessibility, confidentiality, regulatory development, and the roles of data archives, to name a few, will comprise the bulk of the session.

The first panelist, Arja Kuula, will describe the standpoints and the scope of the Finnish ethics review system, which differs from the U.S. system. One of the goals of the Finnish system is to find a balance between confidentiality and the openness of science and research. In addition to informing about the ethical norms that relate to data archiving, Arja will tell how the Finnish Social Science Data Archive has been involved in making guidelines for ethics review at the University of Tampere.

The second panelist, Robert Downs, will present on the perspective that the IRB takes on data management when reviewing research protocols for the protection of human subjects and discuss ways in which these issues can be addressed. He will also discuss some challenges that the protection of human subjects presents to researchers and archives for the collection, management, and dissemination of data.

The third panelist, Yasamin Miller, will speak on the current state of ethics review and how it should and will change in the future. Yasamin will also provide perspectives, concerns, ideas, etc. from the human subjects review board/IRB side of the table.

In the United States and elsewhere, the need for ethics review was
addressed in response to egregious ethical violations in medical and
biological research. Research review in the social and behavioral
sciences has slowly evolved from this medical background, but several
contentious issues remain in the effort to best address the needs and
risks of social science data collection, analysis, and archival. This
panel will be structured to bring together various stakeholders in the
ongoing worldwide discussion of ethics review in the social sciences to
discuss current needs and future directions in the United States and
elsewhere. This session will be structured as a panel discussion and not
as a series of presentations. Each panelist will be given a chance at
the beginning to describe his or her viewpoints regarding the current
state of regulation, data access and confidentiality in social science
research. However, a moderated discussion centered around issues of data
accessibility, confidentiality, regulatory development, and the roles
of data archives, to name a few, will comprise the bulk of the session.

The first panelist, Arja Kuula, will describe the standpoints
and the scope of the Finnish ethics review system, which differs from
the U.S.
system. One of the goals of the Finnish system is to find a balance
between confidentiality and the openness of science and research. In
addition to informing about the ethical norms that relate to data
archiving, Arja will tell how the Finnish Social Science Data Archive
has been involved in making guidelines for ethics review at the
University of Tampere.

The second panelist, Robert Downs, will present on the
perspective that the IRB takes on data management when reviewing
research protocols for the protection of human subjects and discuss ways
in which these issues can be addressed. He will also discuss some
challenges that the protection of human subjects presents to researchers
and archives for the collection, management, and dissemination of data.

The third panelist, Yasamin Miller, will speak on the current
state of ethics review and how it should and will change in the future.
Yasamin will also provide perspectives, concerns, ideas, etc. from the
human subjects review board/IRB side of the table.

The UKDA Secure Data Service is a new service to allow controlled
restricted access procedures for making more detailed microdata files
available to some users (Approved Researchers), subject to conditions of
eligibility, purpose of use, security procedures, and other features
associated with access to the SDS data. Its operation is legally framed
by the 2007 statistics Act. A key problem in Secure Data Service (SDS)
data confidentiality is to balance the legitimate requirements of data
users and confidentiality protection. Employing security technologies
used by the military and banking sectors, the SDS will allow trained
researchers to remotely access data which is held securely on central
SDS servers at the UK Data Archive. The aim of the service is to provide
approved academics unprecedented access to valuable data for research
from their home institutions, with all of the necessary safeguards to
ensure that data is held, accessed and handled securely. The SDS follows
a model which suggests that the safe use of data should cover the
elements of safe project, safe people, safe setting and safe output. In
order to achieve the above goal, data security depends on a matrix of
factors, including technical, legal, contractual, and educational.

The 2006 French Census: A New Collection, A New Dissemination. Which Place for a Data Archive?

Alexandre Kych (Centre Maurice Halbwachs (CMH))

[abstract]

The 1999 census was the last exhaustive census in France that has moved
towards a continuous population census since 2006. At that time, the
French national statistical office (INSEE) renewed profoundly his
website and propose today several collections of aggregated tables, at
municipality level, and more than 10 different microdata files. Anybody
can now download these tables and files without any commitment and free
of charge. Yet the on-line microdata files are not complete due to
confidentiality protection requirements and the standard aggregated
tables cannot answer all the questions. The presentation will focus on
the evolution of the specific role of the French Data Archives in this
new context. The Centre Maurice Halbwachs (CMH), who is in charge within
Réseau Quetelet to provide access to government micro data for the
researchers, offers in cooperation with INSEE specific ways for
tabulations on request. It also provides the annual census survey micro
data file. The new remote access built by INSEE in cooperation with the
Data Archives will offer other possibilities. Finally, not surprisingly,
researchers also continue to turn to CMH for getting help and advice.

OCUL’s Geospatial and Health Informatics Cyberinfrastructure Portal
(“Geospatial Portal” for short) is a new project to create a data
storage and discovery tool in Ontario, Canada, intended to improve
access to geospatial and health data for Ontario researchers and
students. One of the priorities of the project is to explore how new,
collaborative, web-based technologies have influenced teaching and
learning of spatial concepts and dissemination and use of spatial data.
We then intend to incorporate these tools into the Geospatial Portal,
thus encouraging its integration into fundamental classroom and research
processes. In this presentation, we will provide an engaging and fun
look at the latest online technologies for sharing, creating, and
working with spatial data, with visual examples of projects featuring
mashups, collaboration tools, and community-contributed data. We’ll
offer a first look at our plans to use such technologies in the
Geospatial Portal, to encourage engagement with spatial data literacy
among the Ontario academic community.

The Census Dissemination Unit at the UK national data centre based at
the University of Manchester has been delivering Census Aggregate
Statistics over the web to academics for over 10 years. The tool used to
deliver it - Casweb - was once-upon-a-time innovative. Unfortunately
this is no longer the case. The tool 'does the job' but users (say they)
are looking for more interactivity, improved ease of use, and better
ways to combine data. Achieving this is not easy given a small team
whose remit is to support tens of thousands of users, as well as keeping
up with changing user expectations and undertaking in-house
development. And all this when the data delivery methods are changing
too. Still, never ones to turn down a challenge, the team at Manchester
has undertaken to update the data access system in-line with user
requirements. A separate paper discusses the underpinning technology
(the InFuse project based on SDMX and a data feed approach). This
paper/presentation shows how we are engaging directly with users - both
face to face and using social software - to get them to tell us what
they really really want.

Social Networking ranges from the sublime to the del.icio.us. Effective
social networking tools fit into one's work styles, further one's goals
and support a playful approach to one's work. Join us as we share and
skewer our favorite social networking toys for bookmarking,
microblogging, promoting data services, promoting ourselves and keeping
up to date on the data world. We will also look at how some of our
favorite data producers are using and misusing social networking and web
2.0 tools.

Using Ethnography in the Library: How to Study the Students in their Native Data-Gathering Habits

Lois Stickell (University of North Carolina at Charlotte )

[abstract]

Most libraries have access to myriad information sources and data of all
types. The librarians know how to access the data but do the students?
While webpage redesigns and other attempts to make user information more
helpful often focus on usability studies, there is little research on
how students make initial choices about where to go for data. The
University of North Carolina at Charlotte has embarked on a
ethnographically-based study of student use of the library that includes
hiring an Anthropologist to facilitate helping librarians better
understand student behavior. This study is in the early stages but is
patterned after study at the University of Rochester. M presentation
will focus on how the library plans to incorporate this study and the
changes it suggests into an overall re-design of library websites and
the physical facility itself with the goal of better serving the
students. While the overall study will be broad, my presentaiton will
focus on how the lbirary plans to focus on how students seek/find data
and how they succeed and/or fail at the process.

IASSIST Quarterly

Special issue: A pioneer data librarianWelcome
to the special volume of the IASSIST Quarterly (IQ (37):1-4, 2013).
This special issue started as exchange of ideas between Libbie
Stephenson and Margaret Adams to collect